Reducing difference in the Portuguese empire? A case study from early-modern Goa

Abstract

In 1951, the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre made a short visit to Goa. This was part of a trip during which Freyre travelled through the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia to observe the results of the miscegenation process that, in his view, characterised Portuguese colonialism (Castelo 1998; Souza 2008; Bastos 2003; Cardão and Castelo 2015; Bastos 2015). During that visit, Freyre considered that Goan society was one of the best expressions of Lusotropicalism, of that benign Portuguese colonialism that adapted physically and culturally to tropical contexts, creating mixed societies (Freyre 1953). Ironically, five years later, the Portuguese geographer Orlando Ribeiro, who, among other Portuguese intellectuals, espoused Luso-tropicalist theories, had a different impression of the same territories and society, warning Salazar about the near absence of Lusophile feelings, and that the Portuguese presence in Goa was in danger (Ribeiro 1999). How can these different narratives be explained? Was Freyre mistaken? Or was Ribeiro too apocalyptic (which he was not, since in 1961, Goa was annexed by the Indian government)?